PICO-UNION — Los Angeles police have arrested a suspect in the murder of a Pico-Union transgender woman, whose body was discovered Wednesday after firefighters extinguished an apartment fire.

VICCKY GUTIERREZ

The Los Angeles County Coroner has not yet released the woman’s identity, but friends, who organized a vigil on Friday night, have said the victim is Viccky Gutierrez, who moved from Honduras three years ago.

Kevyn Ramirez, 29, of Los Angeles, was arrested Thursday night by the Los Angeles Police Department-FBI Fugitive Task Force after West Bureau Homicide investigators obtained a search warrant and recovered evidence related to Gutierrez’s murder, according to a police department press release. The release doesn’t say where or what evidence was recovered or why the FBI Fugitive Task Force was involved in the arrest.

Police said Ramirez admitted to investigators that he killed Gutierrez after a dispute.

Ramirez’s bail is set at $2,000,000, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will consider the case for filing on Tuesday, police said.

BODY DISCOVERED

On Wednesday about 3:14 a.m., police were responding to a radio call of a fight in the 1700 block of South New Hampshire, but before officers arrived, the Los Angeles Fire Department received a call to the same location of a fire that had engulfed one unit in the two-story apartment, according to the news release.

Firefighters extinguished the fire within 45 minutes and then found Gutierrez’s charred body.

SUBMITTING INFORMATION

Anyone with information regarding the fire death can contact Los Angeles Police Department’s West Bureau Homicide, 213-382-9470. During non-business hours or on weekends, call 1-877-527-3247.

Tipsters also can visit lapdonline.org, and click on “Anonymous Web Tips” under the “Get Involved-Crime Stoppers” menu to submit an online tip. Tipsters can also download the “P3 Tips” mobile application and select the Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers as their local program.

About the author

Phillip Zonkel

Award-winning journalist Phillip Zonkel spent 17 years at Long Beach's Press-Telegram, where he was the first reporter in the paper's history to have a beat covering the city's vibrant LGBTQ. He also created and ran the popular and innovative LGBTQ news blog, Out in the 562.

He won two awards and received a nomination for his reporting on the local LGBTQ community, including a two-part investigation that exposed anti-gay bullying of local high school students and the school districts' failure to implement state mandated protections for LGBTQ students.